Wednesday, June 20, Day Three

 It was good to have that extra hour of sleep, although I’m not really sure I gained an hour if I went to bed over an hour later than normal the night before!  After breakfast we all loaded onto the bus for the ride to the church/clinic.  They have their midweek service on Thursday nights, so we anticipated a very busy day without a break for church.  The norm for such trips is that the first day is the quietest and the last is the busiest.  As word gets out in the community then the people start coming from all over.  It’s a good thing we were somewhat prepared, but I’m not sure I could have been prepared for what we saw when we arrived – there were at least 250 people already waiting to be seen!  Oh my soul!  It was hard not to feel overwhelmed – Lord, please give compassion and strength!

Bradley once more gave a pertinent challenge and we were off.  Most of the providers that could take a blood pressure were put to that task.  Those who were not medical were put to work trying to organize this mass of people into a manageable order.  The heart of man is the same in every culture, and it’s always sad to see the ‘me-first’ mentality – whether it’s in me or in someone else.  At least no one was fighting and everyone seemed to keep a good spirit.  Of course, not knowing Spanish, they could have been cursing me with a smile on their face and I wouldn’t have known it. 

We stayed busy continually – just taking enough time to take a trip to the outhouse periodically and breaking in shifts for lunch.  I had to laugh about the outhouse and different team members’ responses to it. Several years ago, I did a basic mountaineering course in Alaska, and I was the only female on the trip.  There aren’t a whole lot of outhouses up in the mountains of Alaska, so the guys adopted one set of rocks and I adopted another.  We were camping on snow and there were glaciers all around us, so you can get the idea of the temps.  Needless to say, after that experience I decided I would be happy with any type of toilet that had at least 2 walls to block the wind!  Several folks decided they would do whatever was necessary not to have to use this outhouse (it even had a door, so I’m really not sure what the problem was!), including not drinking for all the time we held clinic during the day.  I can’t even imagine…

It was obvious that we had gotten into the groove of things – each department had figured out how to work with people they had just met a few days before and in an environment they would not soon see again.  I have to say that one of my chief prayer requests on these trips is that we have a cohesiveness that brings glory to the Lord.  I know a lot of people are watching us, and the Bible is clear to say that we identify ourselves as being disciples of Christ by our love for the brethren.  It is a challenge to live and work in such close proximity with total strangers, and sometimes the ‘old man’ begins to show himself.  To be very transparent, I curse the old man that still is strong in me at times, and that uses words that can make others feel unwanted or inadequate.  I praise the Lord that more than one person made reference to a good team spirit this week.

I also praise the Lord for the opportunity to share my salvation testimony at dinner time with an individual I do not believe has trusted Christ as Savior; then later the same night with some other team members to share how the Lord has helped me to grow.  There’s a verse in Hebrews that talks about exhorting one another daily lest our hearts be hardened through unbelief and sin.  The warning is not to the unsaved but to those of us who have trusted Christ.  Sharing my testimony is one of the means I like to use to exhort others and remind them of God’s faithfulness. 

On the ride to the hotel Kelleigh asked about Nola’s reaction when I presented the gospel to her.  Honestly, I had come to the conclusion that Nola was very accepting of everyone, thus she was just being polite in letting me tell her about salvation.  I was still praying for her, but I wasn’t holding my breath.  Talk about unbelief! 

The pharmacy team reported tonight that we’ve run out of many medicines – in particular, adult and children’s vitamins.  Ugh!  That’s the one thing most every patient is eager to get, and that most every patient greatly needs.  We are obviously seeing more patients that we thought we’d see in this area – over 740 just today.  Bradley has already gone to the local pharmacies to purchase a med that we give for parasites.  Praise the Lord we can restock a few of our meds locally and usually affordably. 

It was good to have that extra hour of sleep, although I’m not really sure I gained an hour if I went to bed over an hour later than normal the night before!  After breakfast we all loaded onto the bus for the ride to the church/clinic.  They have their midweek service on Thursday nights, so we anticipated a very busy day without a break for church.  The norm for such trips is that the first day is the quietest and the last is the busiest.  As word gets out in the community then the people start coming from all over.  It’s a good thing we were somewhat prepared, but I’m not sure I could have been prepared for what we saw when we arrived – there were at least 250 people already waiting to be seen!  Oh my soul!  It was hard not to feel overwhelmed – Lord, please give compassion and strength!

Bradley once more gave a pertinent challenge and we were off.  Most of the providers that could take a blood pressure were put to that task.  Those who were not medical were put to work trying to organize this mass of people into a manageable order.  The heart of man is the same in every culture, and it’s always sad to see the ‘me-first’ mentality – whether it’s in me or in someone else.  At least no one was fighting and everyone seemed to keep a good spirit.  Of course, not knowing Spanish, they could have been cursing me with a smile on their face and I wouldn’t have known it. 

We stayed busy continually – just taking enough time to take a trip to the outhouse periodically and breaking in shifts for lunch.  I had to laugh about the outhouse and different team members’ responses to it. Several years ago, I did a basic mountaineering course in Alaska, and I was the only female on the trip.  There aren’t a whole lot of outhouses up in the mountains of Alaska, so the guys adopted one set of rocks and I adopted another.  We were camping on snow and there were glaciers all around us, so you can get the idea of the temps.  Needless to say, after that experience I decided I would be happy with any type of toilet that had at least 2 walls to block the wind!  Several folks decided they would do whatever was necessary not to have to use this outhouse (it even had a door, so I’m really not sure what the problem was!), including not drinking for all the time we held clinic during the day.  I can’t even imagine…

It was obvious that we had gotten into the groove of things – each department had figured out how to work with people they had just met a few days before and in an environment they would not soon see again.  I have to say that one of my chief prayer requests on these trips is that we have a cohesiveness that brings glory to the Lord.  I know a lot of people are watching us, and the Bible is clear to say that we identify ourselves as being disciples of Christ by our love for the brethren.  It is a challenge to live and work in such close proximity with total strangers, and sometimes the ‘old man’ begins to show himself.  To be very transparent, I curse the old man that still is strong in me at times, and that uses words that can make others feel unwanted or inadequate.  I praise the Lord that more than one person made reference to a good team spirit this week.

I also praise the Lord for the opportunity to share my salvation testimony at dinner time with an individual I do not believe has trusted Christ as Savior; then later the same night with some other team members to share how the Lord has helped me to grow.  There’s a verse in Hebrews that talks about exhorting one another daily lest our hearts be hardened through unbelief and sin.  The warning is not to the unsaved but to those of us who have trusted Christ.  Sharing my testimony is one of the means I like to use to exhort others and remind them of God’s faithfulness. 

On the ride to the hotel Kelleigh asked about Nola’s reaction when I presented the gospel to her.  Honestly, I had come to the conclusion that Nola was very accepting of everyone, thus she was just being polite in letting me tell her about salvation.  I was still praying for her, but I wasn’t holding my breath.  Talk about unbelief! 

The pharmacy team reported tonight that we’ve run out of many medicines – in particular, adult and children’s vitamins.  Ugh!  That’s the one thing most every patient is eager to get, and that most every patient greatly needs.  We are obviously seeing more patients that we thought we’d see in this area – over 740 just today.  Bradley has already gone to the local pharmacies to purchase a med that we give for parasites.  Praise the Lord we can restock a few of our meds locally and usually affordably.